<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Paved with Good Intentions by bamboozledeagle</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633965">Paved with Good Intentions</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamboozledeagle/pseuds/bamboozledeagle'>bamboozledeagle</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dream SMP - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Character Death, Found Family, Hurt but not a lot of comfort, Multi, Rated S for Swearing, Robin deserved better change my mind, The Village That Went Mad, There are not enough Cornelius/Corpse fics and I am rectifying this immediately, no beta we die like l'manberg</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:47:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,608</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28633965</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bamboozledeagle/pseuds/bamboozledeagle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>I asked how Dream got to where he is now and then didn't wait for anyone to answer me. So here it is.</p><p>He grows up in the forest, dirty and feral. He is curious and young, eyes sparkling with ambitions and intelligence. He sees mortals in their villages and overhears their stories and whispers. He knows what he is, but he doesn’t understand it yet. Sometimes he becomes so lonely that he forgets. He's always reminded. </p><p>He'll come to understand it. Eventually, he'll embrace it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clay | Dream &amp; Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/Corpse Husband (Video Blogging RPF)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>290</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Road to Hell</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>His first memory is of rough bark digging into his hands and feet as he tries to climb the highest tree in the forest. A branch snaps and he slips into free fall. The ground is unforgiving, the long blades of grass doing little to cushion his fall. He doesn’t cry. Instead, he stares up at the leaves rustling in the breeze and wishes he was up in the sky with them. Then he gets up to try again.</p><p>He grows up in the forest, dirty and feral. He has never been clean and he has no memory of any family. He eats because he likes the taste of juicy berries and crisp apples. He fights because the experience of being mauled by predators is unpleasant. He dashes through the forest for the thrill of it and climbs the highest mountains for the view.</p><p>The land is his harshest teacher: it toughens him with cold winters and numerous mobs yet provides him with anything he needs if he just seeks it out. He learns how to hunt, where the best places for foraging are, how to craft armor and weapons, how to trade and enchant, and how to travel between the worlds.  </p><p>He is curious and young, eyes sparkling with ambitions and intelligence, and he is lonely. He sees mortals in their villages and overhears their stories and whispers.</p><p>He knows what he is, but he doesn’t understand it yet.</p><p>In time, the land will teach him that too.</p><p>…</p><p>He knows, in the back of his mind, that he should avoid civilizations. He is not meant to be among the mortals, but he has never been one to shy away from getting what he wants and the dark tail flicking from side to side looks so <em>soft</em>.</p><p>His eyes are locked onto the tail and he watches its movements carefully. Had it been attached to another animal his first instinct would have been to either befriend it or hold it down so he could run his hands through the soft fur. The land has taught him much, but manners were not one of them.</p><p>He picked up on what was and was not acceptable behavior from the villages he encountered in his travels. Humans, like most animals, had boundaries, even when speaking to one another.</p><p>It is with this knowledge that he emerges from the forest, his question already forming on the tip of his tongue in preparation for the encounter. He knows how to speak; he has always understood the words of mortals. It was their actions he had difficulty with. </p><p>The tail stills for a moment and like an arrow he lets his question fly, “Can I pet your tail?”</p><p>Blue eyes whirl around to face him and he waits for a response with as much patience as he can muster. The human’s tail is bristling. He spooked the mortal though he isn’t sure how. He’s accidentally snuck up on traders and villagers before, but he was sure the human had seen him coming. Finally, a deep voice replies, “Where in the world did you come from?”</p><p>He is shocked into silence, having never heard such a deep tone before. The human’s face changes when neither of them moves, “Hello?”</p><p>He doesn’t fully understand mortal behavior, but the tail is a dead giveaway to the confusion the one in front of him is feeling. He hesitates, really wishing he had gotten a simple yes or no answer. Unsure of how to proceed or where the conversation is going, he echoes back, “Hello?”  </p><p>The face changes again and he wonders what it is like to have so many expressions, “I’m Corpse.”</p><p>He tilts his head in confusion. Is that not the term for dead bodies? Why would humans give it to a live one? This human with such a strange name was odd enough already, with its cat features and its blue eyes which don’t seem to look at anything in particular. He supposes an odd name for an odd creature does make an odd sort of sense. The human continues, “What’s your name?”</p><p>He shrugs, he’s never had a name and few rarely ask for it. He has no need for one except for situations such as this. He glances around for inspiration and spots a patch of yellow that peeks out of the arms of a passerby, “Corn…elius.”</p><p>The human crosses its arms, tail flicking back and forth again, “Alright then, Cornelius, if you want to pet my tail then don’t sneak up on a blind man.”</p><p>This is precisely when he learns two things: one, that Corpse is blind and two, he still has a chance to pet that soft, fluffy tail. He was never one to back down from a challenge, so with immense optimism, he says, “Please?”</p><p>Corpse is so surprised by his response that the human dissolves into a fit of laughter and ‘Cornelius’ is allowed to pet the tail.</p><p>…</p><p>He decides to stick around despite how strange it feels to stay in one place for so long. He has never met anyone like Corpse and his interest is piqued.</p><p>He ends up staying the night and then a week and then a month until half a year has passed and he is still living in the same village. He makes himself useful by teaching the villagers the way of the forest, filling in their gaps of knowledge with his firsthand experience. In return, they call him wise and allow him to stay with them. He is fascinated by how they all work together as one unit. “Like one big family,” the mayor had proudly explained.</p><p>Cornelius (because he <em>is</em> Cornelius now, making the name his own and fully embracing the role he’s been given by the village) grows closer to Corpse. The man is the kindest creature he has ever met, going out of his way to do little things for him like bringing home the cheese Cornelius is so fond of despite disliking the smell himself, and Corpse is incredibly easy to talk to. He could spend days by the hybrid’s side and never feel as though his space is being intruded upon. A very impressive feat given how long he’s spent alone.</p><p>It doesn’t take long for his heart to beat faster when Corpse gets close enough and the hybrid’s lingering touches on his skin sends sparks up nerves. Corpse lights a fire in his soul that burns like wildfire and never goes out.</p><p>He loves the quiet moments the best. When the sun has set and it’s just the two of them curled up together.</p><p>“You appear next to me every day like a dream. My dream.” Corpse whispers one night with his face tucked under Cornelius’ head and one arm thrown possessively over his stomach. Cornelius is smitten.</p><p>He nearly combusts the first time Corpse presses a gentle kiss against the forehead of his mask and he cries when Corpse asks him to become his husband. For the first time in his life, Cornelius has no desire to go back out into the land. He’s found somewhere that he wants to stay and someone who wants him to stay.  </p><p>They keep it quiet, calling each other their ‘partner’ to avoid suspicion. Robin is the first and only villager to discover their relationship. The orphan has a permanent spot in their house even before he’s officially adopted. Corpse adored the child and Dream knew as soon as he saw the same spark of intelligence behind Robin’s eyes that he sees in his own that it was only a matter of time before he too was wrapped around the kid’s pinky finger.</p><p>He spends hours every day showing Robin what he knows and when the boy looks back at him with happiness and pride after successfully mixing an herbal paste, his chest feels like it’s going to burst.</p><p>He has never known a family and he has never had a name. The land taught him everything he knew and was everything he knew. Now he had others, people to love and to protect who feel the same way about him.</p><p>He is so caught up in the bliss of having a family that he forgets what he is.</p><p>…</p><p>The reminder is brutal.</p><p>He wakes up with a knife in his chest and a dark figure looming over him. He hears Corpse sleeping beside him, soft breaths loud in the quiet night, and he lashes out at the figure with a strong fist. He may die, but he’ll be damned if his murderer gets his family too.</p><p>He rolls out of bed from the force of the swing and lands on the wooden floor with a thud. The movement shifts the knife painfully and a gasp of pain is wrenched from his throat. Corpse stirs at the disturbance. The figure flees through the window, their dark shape vanishing into the night. Cornelius gets a glimpse of a young, male face before they’re gone.</p><p>Corpse mutters his name sleepily.</p><p>The floor is cold beneath his palms and the chill seeps into his bones through the thin layer of clothing he sleeps in. He tries to push himself up off the floor but the blade in his heart ensures he doesn’t get too far. He barely manages to get himself up into a sitting position before his arms give out. It’s just enough for him to lean back against the side of the bed.</p><p>The sliver of light that trickles through the open window bounces off the silver handle sticking out of his chest. Metallic liquid fills his mouth, and he coughs wetly. The bed creaks and Corpse calls for him again.</p><p>Cornelius struggles to respond. His breathing is ragged, lungs straining around the metal blade, from the exertion of sitting up. Warm blood stains his shirt crimson and spills down his chin. His strength is fading fast. He’s so tired…</p><p>He really hopes Robin doesn’t have to see his dead body in the morning. He can already tell he’ll make a poor sight in the morning and the poor boy has already been through so much.</p><p>Something wooden gently knocks against his outstretched leg and both Corpse and his seeing stick drop to the floor next to him, “I smell blood. What’s wrong? Why is the window open?”</p><p>Cornelius chokes on his own blood and Corpse’s goes pale at the sound. Shaking hands find his face, gently reaching under the mask and moving it aside so the hybrid can check him over. He gasps when his fingers come in contact with the blood. Cornelius watches sadly as his ears go flat with concern and fear. He mutters repeatedly in disbelief, “What happened?”</p><p>His only response is the faint sound of distant mobs.</p><p>Cornelius weakly watches as Corpse slowly figures out what happened on his own. He jolts in pain when the hilt of the blade is nudged by searching hands and his pained whimper cuts through the air. Corpse’s eyes go wide as he shakingly feels out the damage. Tears fill his blue eyes, and he sobs, “Cornelius – Love, <em>my dream </em>–”</p><p>Arms wrap around his body and pull him into Corpse’s chest. The hybrid wails into his hair, “Stay with me, stay with me, please!”</p><p>‘I’ll come back’ He wants to say, ‘I’ll come back for you, it’s going to be okay’</p><p>He coughs up the words in the form of more blood.</p><p>Cornelius takes comfort in being held by his lover as he dies and he’s not scared for himself, but he fears what this will do to his family. He exhales for the last time and his body goes still. Above him, his husband wails.</p><p>…</p><p>He runs back to the village as fast as he can, but it still takes him two full days. On the night of his arrival, the village is ominously silent and there’s a stench in the air.</p><p>He hurries to his home. The explanation for his return, which he had practiced many times on his way back, dies on his lips when he opens the door. It’s cold and barren of his family. The fireplace hasn’t been touched for days and no one is in the bedrooms. His own blood still stains the bed from the night he died.</p><p>Something is very wrong. Someone would have cleaned it up, the house should be warm, and more importantly, his family should be here!</p><p>He leaves the house and runs to others. He knocks on Jack’s door and hears coughing from the other side. The door opens and the same young, male face that he saw that night looks back at him pale and drawn. He’s ill.</p><p>Cornelius doesn’t care, “Where the <em>fuck</em> is my family?”</p><p>Jack reels back from the snarl. Fear and fever shaking his frame, “Ghost! A ghost!”</p><p>He tries to shut the door, but Cornelius is lightning-quick and uses his foot to lodge the door before it can fully close. He barges into the room like an angry wolf and grabs a fistful of Jack’s collar, “I asked you a question! Did you kill them?!”</p><p>Jack cowers, “No, please! It was the villagers! They thought Corpse killed you and Robin – Robin was next!”</p><p>Cornelius shakes him violently and roars, “What did you do? What did they do?”</p><p>The man cries, “I didn’t kill them! The villagers did it! Please!”</p><p>He drops Jack.</p><p>Dead.</p><p>His family is…</p><p>But no Corpse was a blind, gentle man, how could the villagers ever suspect he would have killed Cornelius? And Robin-</p><p>Gods, <em>Robin</em>. No one in the village cared for orphans except for him and Corpse. Of course, they would turn on the boy the second both of them were gone. But he was just a child and the last time Cornelius had seen him he was making flower crowns for them before going to bed, Robin couldn’t be…</p><p>“Please…” Jack begs from the floor, weak fingers desperately grasping at Cornelius’ forest green cloak, “Cornelius we are ill, you must know how to cure us.”</p><p>His blood runs cold, liquid ice freezing his veins. A white mask stares blankly back at Jack, swathed in shadows and looming over him. Cornelius turns on his heel and walks out the door.</p><p>Jack scrambles, “Wait please-!”</p><p>Without looking back, he responds without any hint of emotion, “Robin was the town doctor. He could have cured you.”</p><p>And then he vanishes back into the forest, leaving behind a doomed town that would soon be vacant of all life.</p><p>…</p><p>After walking for most of the night, he finds himself deep in an untraversed mushroom forest. Finally far enough away from the village and its ghosts to feel safe, he collapses back against one of the surrounding oak trees and stares out into the forest.</p><p>Gone.</p><p>His family was gone.</p><p>He spent so much time thinking about how the reunion would go – what he would say and what the outcomes could be. He would have been fine with Corpse being upset with him and he would have loved any option that involved staying with his family, but he was so sure that the murderer would be caught – that the murderer was from outside the village and not <em>Jack</em> – that he hadn’t considered they would be blamed for his death. He hadn’t thought they would be dead when he got back.</p><p>He’ll never be able to hold Corpse or Robin again. He’ll never be able to remind them how much he loves them. There won’t be any more days in the forest teaching Robin how to make herbs and bandages. No more sleepy mornings curled up with Corpse in their bed. No dinner conversations about Robin’s day.</p><p>No Robin.</p><p>No Corpse.</p><p>He doesn’t move from his spot for a week and the tears don’t stop flowing for years. He has nothing to fix his bleeding heart besides time.</p><p>And time only moves forward.</p><p>…</p><p>Time cannot rewind.</p><p>The moment he realizes he’s forgetting them he panics.</p><p>He rushes to craft a book and then spends day after day writing down everything he can. He tries to draw their faces from memory but none of the figures that come out are right. Pages are scrapped and ripped with frustration, but he keeps going because he can’t forget them. He <em>can’t</em>. So, he keeps trying.</p><p>What he isn’t satisfied with in his drawings, he makes up for in his descriptions. Their heights are documented using his own body as a reference, the height chart consisting of scribbled numbers and smudged outlines. He writes down pages upon pages of what they liked, what they hated, what color their eyes were, what they meant to him, and everything in between. Corpse takes up nearly half the book and Robin has about a quarter of the pages to himself but it’s not enough, there should be more shouldn’t there? How could he forget so much already?</p><p>Corpse’s voice was so deep but what did Robin’s sound like? What was the exact shade of Corpse’s eyes? What were the flowers in the first flower crown Robin had made? It’s only been two years, how did he lose so much already?</p><p>Two years wasn’t long. If they were still with him – </p><p>A wave of cold flows through his body.</p><p>They could have still been with him.</p><p>If the other villagers, if those <em>bastards</em>, had just done their <em>fucking</em> job and been decent <em>fucking</em> human beings who could use their <em>god damned</em> brains…</p><p>The charcoal in his hands snaps in half and brings him back to his little hut in the forest. His fingers stiffly uncurl and there’s blood under his nails. The sting of the crescent-shaped wounds on his palm ground him and the anger fades a little, but it doesn’t leave. It never does. It lingers in the back of his mind like a stalking predator, simmering in the background before flaring up in moments like these. </p><p>He hasn’t made contact with any humans since leaving the village. Just the sight of one reminded him of his time as Cornelius. His loss is still too raw for him to brave another betrayal or worse: another attachment. He’s staying away for now.</p><p>He knows, just as his teacher does, that he will eventually return to human villages. He can feel the loneliness creeping in and now that he’s had a taste of what it’s like to have a family it’s all the more unbearable not to have one. It is only a matter of time and he has plenty of that, for better or for worse.</p><p>He remembers what he is and he is beginning to understand it.</p><p>…</p><p>He needs a new name when he begins to interact with humans again.</p><p>Not Cornelius. Cornelius died with Robin and Corpse. He needs a new persona – a new mask to put on.</p><p>
  <em>‘My dream.’</em>
</p><p>He calls himself Dream and pretends he’s always had that name despite the old book in his ender chest that suggests otherwise.</p><p>No one is ever able to call his bluff. </p><p>…</p><p>The next time he interacts with mortals, he doesn’t forget what he is.</p><p>He walks into the desert village as a passerby, only stopping long enough to trade for pearls. It’s a good-sized village, only slightly larger than Cornelius’, but for Sapnap it is far too small. The son of the blacksmith wants to travel and his personality is only barely contained by the sandstone buildings.</p><p>It scares Dream just how fast Sapnap wiggles his way into his company. The younger man has found his ticket out of town in the form of a masked stranger with a green cloak and he isn’t inclined to let him leave without company. Dream exits the village with ender pearls and a new companion.  </p><p>He figures they’ll part ways eventually, but the time never comes. Sapnap is all boundless loyalty and chaotic energy. He starts forest fires just as easily as he would run into one for his friends. He weasels his way into Dream’s heart and then apparently decides not to leave.</p><p>Dream is careful in his expectations this time around and he plans on making the most of his time with Sapnap. (If he gives him tips on how to fight in an attempt to keep him alive just that little bit longer then that’s nobody’s business but his.)</p><p>They spend eight years traveling together making traps, defending each other from mobs, and messing around with one another before they run into George.</p><p>Their bows had broken while they were exploring a cave and the village is conveniently nearby, so they stop to visit the local fletcher for new ones. They sit on the stoop of the shop and when an hour goes by and no one shows up, Dream loses patience and begins to carve their new bows himself. By the time the fletcher eventually arrives he’s made them both decent bows and Sapnap has crafted enough arrows to fill two quivers.</p><p>“Those are terrible.” The fletcher comments when he sees them sitting on the stoop of his shop. He’s met with a glare and a blank mask that Sapnap crudely drew a smile on.</p><p>George is apologetic enough about them waiting for so long that he gives them a discount on the much higher quality bows inside. They had no idea the bows would come with the fletcher himself.</p><p>“I was planning on leaving today but I got side-tracked.” George says, “You mind if I tag along?”</p><p>Sapnap and Dream share a look before Dream shrugs and responds, “Sure. We’re not headed anywhere in particular.”</p><p>“Good.” George picks up his bag, “Neither am I.”</p><p>As they travel and the woods change from forest to desert to swamp and then back to forest, they learn more about each other. Dream and Sapnap have the benefit of knowing each other for much longer which leaves George ghosting just outside of their inner circle, but after two months on the road fighting next to him and working together, he successfully makes himself part of the group. Sapnap jokingly calls them the Dream team.</p><p>He isn’t entirely sure how it happened, but Dream is no longer lonely. He could easily see himself traveling with them until they grew old and died, but eventually, the mortals grow tired of exploring. “Then let’s pick a spot and make it our own.” Dream offers and the other two beam at him.</p><p>They spend weeks searching for a good spot and arguing over where to start. George wants a place that is flat and open, Sapnap wants an evergreen forest with foxes, and Dream is firm in his stance that they stay away from the mountains.</p><p>“You’re just scared you’ll fall off.” Sapnap teases. Dream smirks and shoves him into a lake. The man falls with a shriek and retaliation is clearly on his mind when he resurfaces. Dream laughs as he’s pulled into the lake next and the water fight starts.</p><p>“No, don’t!” George yells when they both turn on him. He screams when his friends leave the lake with a splash and chase after him. They catch up quickly and Dream carries him back to the lake to be tossed in.</p><p>That evening their wet clothes take up most of the space around the campfire. The fire crackles delightedly under Sapnap’s care and the boys are left to fish for dinner in their underwear.</p><p>“What about here?” George asks, pulling up seaweed for the third time, “Or maybe not.”</p><p>Dream hums and tosses back a pufferfish.</p><p>“Here is fine with me.” Sapnap says, “We could build a house over it.”</p><p>They both look to Dream for the final verdict.</p><p>If he’s honest, Dream doesn’t care where they set up. He’s more worried about finding a place at all. It’s been so long since he’s had somewhere to call home that it makes him nervous, doubts swirling and mingling with bad memories. It was easier to ignore that he was becoming apart of a family again when they were on the road and did not have a place to return to.</p><p>That didn’t mean the others made it easy on him. Sapnap had made the mistake of calling their camp ‘home’ on more than one occasion when he was tired and wanted to go to sleep.</p><p>“Let’s go home.” He would yawn, oblivious to the phantom pain in Dream’s heart and the turmoil in his head. Those occasions were easy to dismiss because they were relatively few and far between, but now with an actual house, it would be happening more and Dream couldn’t deny it any longer.</p><p>If they found a spot to settle down, Dream would have to admit to himself that George and Sapnap were family and had been for a while now. It was never a matter of where they set up. It was whether Dream was ready to be honest with himself or not.</p><p>Dream moves his mask up so it rests on the top of his head. He looks over at them with old eyes sparkling with ambitions,</p><p>“Then let’s do it.”</p><p>And forgets who he is.</p><p>…</p><p>Others come.</p><p>They flock to the community house for one reason or another. Some come seeking asylum, others because Dream sent word to them, and the rest by word of mouth. A couple stay at the community house, but most branch off, still close to the house but far enough away to form their own little factions.</p><p>The DreamSMP is formed.</p><p>It’s never explicitly stated that Dream is the leader of the land, though everyone knows it. He’s the one who makes the laws and enforces them. He takes the time to build a courthouse to ensure that trials are implemented (and all the while thinks of a deep voice and flower crowns).</p><p>The laws are simple: no stealing, no griefing, and no murder. Criminals undergo a trial and justice is upheld. Dream is proud of it.</p><p>Then Tommy comes.</p><p>From the very start, the boy held no regard for the laws, and no matter what Dream did it seemed that the only way to get him under control was by using his disks as leverage. At first, Dream is fine with the childish game they start playing. So long as Tommy is focused on getting his disks back from Dream, he’ll leave the other members of the SMP alone. It even becomes fun for a while. Tommy is good at rallying others to his side and keeping Dream on his toes. Sapnap is drawn in by the fire the kid leaves in his wake and Dream can’t help but be slightly impressed with just how much chaos the boy can stir up in such a short amount of time.</p><p>Besides, he’s never been one to back down from a challenge. It’s thrilling, this little game of theirs, and Dream has fun with it, but L’Manberg changes things.</p><p>Wilbur and Tommy’s exclusive little club is protected by the walls they built around it and Dream is infuriated when he first sees it.</p><p>The SMP was supposed to be everyone’s. It was supposed to be one big area with enough room for everyone to have their own space but still be together. If the SMP is a complex, then everyone’s houses are the equivalent of having their own rooms and the factions are the different floors. L’Manberg is like someone taping off the main public space and declaring it theirs.</p><p>It might have been different if they had merely gone off like the others had and made a faction, but it’s the towering walls that surround the land on all sides that rubs him exactly the wrong way. They said they used their words to fight rather than weapons, but the walls speak volumes louder than anything Wilbur spouts. They were planning on defending L’Manburg even before war had been declared.</p><p>The Declaration of Independence confirms what L’Manburg really is and it’s what drives him to declare war. Like hell he’s going to let them just walk away with his land. Like hell he’s going to let them take up space that is meant to be shared. Like hell he’s going to let them get away with it.</p><p>His body temperature drops, ice flooding his veins for the first time in hundreds of years.</p><p>They remind him what he is.</p><p>…</p><p>L’Manberg stays.</p><p>It wasn’t fun fighting Tommy and the others like that and it certainly wasn’t how he wanted to win the disk war, but if Tommy is willing to part with his most prized possessions – if everyone is that serious about having the space be theirs – then Dream can’t turn him down. He doesn’t care about the disks, he never has, but Tommy did and that was worth something. It would be dishonorable of Dream to ignore the significance of the action.</p><p>Both sides walk away with a sense of victory and satisfaction, but the prickling feeling L’Manberg gives him lingers.</p><p>…</p><p>The fight over the disks starts again when Tommy runs him over with a rail cart.</p><p>Dream is conflicted and baffled by it. On one hand, he’s happy to go back to their game. On the other, Tommy <em>gave</em> him the disks for L’Manberg, which made them Dream’s and taking them back went directly against their deal. Now Tommy had reneged by stealing the disks back. Not to mention how frustrating it is for the little bug to refuse to return his things.</p><p>He concludes that Tommy, child that he is, just has no sense of politics and ultimately decides to go back to their game without bringing up the deal.</p><p>He changes his mind later, after the Pet War and waking up by Purpled’s UFO with Tubbo and Fundy, when he finds the newly exiled Wilbur and Tommy in the forest. Wilbur steps up to him, arms spread wide with a longing for destruction, “I want to be your vassal.”</p><p>For a moment he can see the destruction of L’Manberg perfectly. The nation will fall and he’ll swoop in amongst the destruction to take the land back. Hell, he could even bring the factions back into the SMP while he’s at it. There won’t be any more barriers between the community, not even walls or floors. The SMP will go back to being one big community house – one big family, albeit on a bigger scale than before.</p><p>He looks down at Wilbur and smiles behind his mask.</p><p>…</p><p>L’Manberg goes up in smoke despite Pogtopia’s best efforts.</p><p>Through the wails and cries, his cheer smothers them all. </p><p>Dream knows exactly what he is and he’s understanding it more every day.</p><p>…  </p><p>Tommy griefs George’s house and Dream sees the perfect opportunity to do what he should have done when Tommy first took <em>Dream’s</em> disks back.</p><p>He demands Tubbo exile Tommy for griefing the King’s house. Tommy never understood politics and Tubbo understands just enough to give into Dream’s demands, but not much else.</p><p>They agree to meet with him on neutral ground and Dream is delighted that Tommy is going to have to behave. He knows better than anyone that Tommy is entirely incapable of behaving so it’s only a matter of time.</p><p>His joy is short-lived.</p><p>Almost immediately, Tommy pulls out the leather of his dead horse and blackmails him.</p><p>For the third time in his long life, Dream’s veins run cold. He complies with Tommy’s demands and listens to them call him names and jeer at him while he begins to take down the obsidian wall on the threat of burning Spirit’s remains.</p><p>A dark obsidian block breaks and he remembers a dark fluffy tail.</p><p>Mortals were fragile, their time was limited. Corpse and Robin taught him that.</p><p>Another block breaks and he remembers a family of villagers that turned on each other.</p><p>Mortals were also cruel and their actions used to confuse him because, at the end of the day, that was where their true intentions lay. Jack taught him that.</p><p>He stops and looks down at Tommy, the source of many griefings and thefts.</p><p>Mortals take as much as they can, they are destruction and chaos. He should have remembered that.</p><p>The L’Manberg residents jeer at him and Tommy demands he get back to work. He breaks another block. Tubbo’s voice reaches him up on the wall, something about what’s right, and Dream vaguely remembers the voice coming from a different child.</p><p>Mortals take and destroy the living. He learned that a long time ago.</p><p>He glances back down and sees Spirit’s leather still in Tommy’s hands.</p><p>Mortals take and destroy the dead. He’s just learning that now.</p><p>Was nothing sacred to them?</p><p>If Dream could not have a family without them taking them from him –</p><p>If Dream could not have a home with his family without them stealing from him –</p><p>If Dream could not harbor any attachments to the dead without it being used as blackmail against him –</p><p>If nothing mattered to them –</p><p>Why should it matter to him?</p><p>Dream builds the wall back up.</p><p>He knows what he is and he understands it.</p><p>Now, he’s going to embrace it.</p><p>…</p><p>When it’s over and done, the ice doesn’t melt. It stays, freezing his heart and frosting his mind.</p><p>George and Sapnap leave him but when they don’t return even after he explains himself, he can’t find it in himself to care. He pretends to be Tommy’s only friend and burns his things, but he doesn’t feel any remorse for it.</p><p>Perhaps he would have felt bad about it at one point, but Cornelius is long dead (and the Dream that Sapnap and George befriended died in front of Purpled’s UFO).</p><p>He makes L’Manberg a hole in the ground, going further than Wilbur by leagues. He bombs it until he sees bedrock and with Techno backing him up, it’s far too easy.</p><p>Technoblade’s intentions were always clear from the start. Hybrids, Dream has found, are much better than humans when it came to honesty. He knew it would end with him and Techno making L’Manberg fall. The humans were too set on revenge for the withers to let Techno be at peace and Tommy was too <em>Tommy</em> to ever remain in Techno’s good graces. Dream just had to play on Tommy’s untrustworthiness and watch as everything fell into place.</p><p>It ends with Tommy standing across from him, obsidian blocks beneath their feet and high above the crater that used to be L’Manberg.</p><p>“You’re a monster.” Tommy states.</p><p>A man raised by the wilderness looks over at him, frigid and old, green eyes burning with ambitions and intelligence.</p><p>The land has taught him everything he knows. He has memories of a family that was taken from him and a family that Tommy and L’Manberg split apart. He fights because it’s fun. He runs for the thrill of the hunt.</p><p>He knows what he is.</p><p>Now Tommy does too.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Epilogue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It was always going to end this way</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I can have a semi-happy ending...as a treat.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They kill him. He knew they would, it’s part of what he is. Monsters always die in the end no matter if it was at the hands of a villain or a hero.</p><p>“When you come back, you’re going on trial and then you’re going to prison.” Quackity declares, blood streaming down his arm.</p><p>He laughs.</p><p>Tommy’s sword is through his gut, his armor is shattered, and he <em>laughs</em>.</p><p>“Bad news, then.” Dream grins behind his broken mask, his voice betrays how exhausted he is from the fight, “I’m not coming back.”</p><p>The battle lasted an hour, all chasing and fighting and quick thinking on both sides. But this was how it was always going to end, one way or another. The surprise on everyone’s face is amusing, it’s as if they didn’t expect him to die at all. He can’t help but wheeze at the sight, stumbling back towards the community house’s beacon. It’s fitting that it would end here. He was forever doomed to die in the houses he shares with his family.</p><p>“Dream!” Sapnap screams. His brother in all but blood looks horrified at the outcome of the fight and that’s…less amusing.  </p><p>Dream falls backward, his adrenaline leaving him to crash and burn on the ground. The beacon is warm but uncomfortable, his body supported only by where its sharp corners dig into his back. He looks up at his opponents. Every single person from the SMP showed up to the fight, putting aside their differences and working out their conflicts for the sole purpose of taking him down.</p><p>They’re a family again, even if it’s without him and he loathes that <em>Tommy</em> is the one they rallied behind instead of him. He’ll take what little he can get, though.</p><p>“Finally.” He sighs wearily. Blue light shines through his flesh, silhouetting what’s left of his mangled and broken heart. He’s ready to take a long, <em>long</em> rest. He’ll start over somewhere else or maybe he’ll wait their lives out and come back to the SMP one day.</p><p>Hands cradle his head, and he snaps out of his thoughts to see Sapnap kneeling in front of him. “We’ll fix you up, okay? You’ll go on trial and you’ll live the rest of your life in prison. You do not get to die on me!”</p><p>He’s not listening.</p><p>Over Sapnap’s shoulder, he sees a dark, fluffy tail.</p><p>He reaches a hand out and Corpse grasps it.</p><p>“It’s so cold.” Dream confesses quietly, the words spilling out of him before he can register them. He doesn’t care. Corpse is <em>here</em>. Sapnap and George were family but they didn’t ever feel like equals. Not really. Dream’s mental walls didn’t allow for them to be as close as Corpse had been.</p><p>Tears gather in his eyes, overwhelmed to see his lover again. He doesn’t have anything to hide from Corpse. He doesn’t <em>want</em> to hide anything from Corpse. So he keeps talking, “It should hurt, but I can’t feel anything.”</p><p>“I know.” Corpse says, kneeling down beside Sapnap who is trying to see who he’s talking to, “Robin and I will patch you up.”</p><p>Memories of days when he was softer – <em>kinder</em> – flash through his mind.</p><p>“I don’t know what happened to me.” Warm tears fall down his face and it’s the first time any part of him has been warm since the day on the obsidian walls of L’Manberg. It scares him. Ghostly fingers run comfortingly through his hair and solid fingers wipe away his tears.</p><p>“Dream. Dream, look at me.” Sapnap begs. Around him, the others watch with varying degrees of remorse. Regardless of how they all feel, they’re out of healing potions. There’s nothing they can do.</p><p>“Come with us.” Corpse offers and Robin appears by his side with a comforting smile, “Stay with us.”</p><p>The sight of them before him as he bleeds out mirrors the image of a different time, showing him what could have been if he had told them about his immortality, instead of assuming he could age and grow old with them without any interference.</p><p>Dream makes his decision in the span of his final heartbeat.</p><p>He doesn’t feel as cold as he did before.</p><p>Every story he ever heard ended in tragedy for the monster. He was abnormal and frightening, exactly what monsters are supposed to be. By all accounts, he shouldn’t get this. Sapnap shouldn’t be crying over him, the SMP shouldn’t mourn his death, and Corpse sure as hell shouldn’t have appeared to him in his final moments.</p><p>But as he takes one last breath, he thinks maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t always what everyone thought he was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This took so long and I'm so nervous about it; let me know if you liked it or if there's anything I can improve upon!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>